Priority on google searches. Search engine optimization.

[highland145]

Sounds like a scam to me to pay a company to "make sure" your web page is on the 1st page of the google search. Anyone know if they can help or are a sham?

TIA

 

[DominionSeraph]

Mind giving us the first half of the conversation this goes to?

 

[highland145]

Mind giving us the first half of the conversation this goes to?

Sorry. The wife's office has been using a company that charges $160/month for a "web page", very generic, that promises that their business will come up on the 1st page of search results via google. I think it's a scam and they should get a legit page set up and stop paying the $160. She's afraid that they will get lost in the google shuffle. Local office that caters to local clients. I think that if people put the city/state there won't be a problem.

 

[kranky]

Wait... they are paying NOW for someone to make sure they show up on the first page? Is that happening?

 

[highland145]

Wait... they are paying NOW for someone to make sure they show up on the first page?Is that happening?

Yes and yes but if your google location is local to you or you put in the city/state with the type of business you're looking for I would think it'd probably show up on the 1st page anyway.

 

[DominionSeraph]

It's not a scam. There are things that can be done that will raise a website's profile.
If this is a generic business it very well could get lost in the google shuffle.

 

[Wyndru]

I worked for a company that paid another company to do this as well, but IIRC it was charged based on how many referrer URLs they logged on our end coming from google. I don't know how they did it, but the owner of our company said it was very important to have this service.

 

[kranky]

Load the page, do View Source, and see what metadata is at the top (keywords, description). Those things, plus the content of the page itself, and how many other sites link to that page, influence the Google placement (oversimplifying).

See how many pages link to their page by putting "link:<your URL>" into Google.

I think it would be eminently cheaper to have cheap hosting (especially if they only have a one-page site) and pay a SEO company a one-time fee to assist if necessary.

But if they are getting good search placement now, maybe they can move the domain to a cheaper hosting site and call it a day.

 

[highland145]

It's not a scam. There are things that can be done that will raise a website's profile.
If this is a generic business it very well could get lost in the google shuffle.

Thanks. With my limited understanding.......I would think 1)that for $160/mo they could get a great web page(instead of a generic info one) with the proper "tags" to give it a better search results and 2)we're in a small city with ~30K people so if city/state is added to the search, how could they not come up?

 

[highland145]

Load the page, do View Source, and see what metadata is at the top (keywords, description). Those things, plus the content of the page itself, and how many other sites link to that page, influence the Google placement (oversimplifying).

See how many pages link to their page by putting "link:<your URL>" into Google.

I think it would be eminently cheaper to have cheap hosting (especially if they only have a one-page site) and pay a SEO company a one-time fee to assist if necessary.

But if they are getting good search placement now, maybe they can move the domain to a cheaper hosting site and call it a day.

Thanks. Will do.

 

[Texashiker]

Sounds like a scam to me to pay a company to "make sure" your web page is on the 1st page of the google search. Anyone know if they can help or are a sham?

Its a scam.

News article from 2004

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002002970_nwbizbriefs12.html

SEATTLE &#8212; The state attorney general said yesterday Redmond-based Internet Advancement must pay penalties for failing to get its customers top placement on major search engines.

Nobody can promise you "where" a site is going to rank in the search engines.

 

[DominionSeraph]

Its a scam.

News article from 2004

Reading comprehension fail.

must pay penalties for failing to get its customers top placement on major search engines.

It failed to deliver on the advertised service. Its customers would be entitled to a refund and it would be subject to fines for fraud/false advertising.
This has nothing to do with companies who can actually deliver on said service or who advertise more carefully/accurately.

Retards everywhere.

 

[Texashiker]

This has nothing to do with companies who can actually deliver on said service.

I guess you keep up with the webmaster and SEO world?

 

[DominionSeraph]

I guess you keep up with the webmaster and SEO world?

Enough to know they haven't been outlawed.
You do know what the "law" is, don't you? And understand how that pertains to a court case?

Apparently not.

Retards everywhere.

 

[Q]

The idea of SEO is very real and true, but the methods to get to the first page are very tough and take a lot of time, work, and effort to do so. Like all things in life, the shortcut is usually not the way (ie. the pay us $XXXX and we'll get you on first page in 1 month!)

 

[Red Squirrel]

I never understood the point of paying for SEO. You can do it yourself.

Do a Google search for for "free UO shard" without quotes. My game server http://www.uovalor.com pops up on the first page, I did not pay anyone to do that, I just did it myself.

Now I probably just botched that because this post will end up higher.

One thing I think that MAY have an effect is the domain's age and expiry. I have a suspicion that out of the many other things Google looks at, this is one of them.

 

[CurseTheSky]

The idea of SEO is very real and true, but the methods to get to the first page are very tough and take a lot of time, work, and effort to do so. Like all things in life, the shortcut is usually not the way (ie. the pay us $XXXX and we'll get you on first page in 1 month!)

This. I'm a web designer / programmer by trade, and we do a decent amount of SEO work as well. There are a lot of "black hat" shortcuts, such as invisible keyword boxes, shared link banks throughout many different websites, etc. that can promote your search rankings fairly quickly. However, you're also risking getting banned from search listings by Google, and possibly others (I believe this happened to BMW a while back).

Most of the "white hat" techniques involve clever wording of your content (ever wonder why many business-oriented websites start out with "Company X, a Richmond, VA based Law Firm; serving markets in ABC, DEF, and GHI...?"), hits per day / month, links from other websites, etc. To put it in a nutshell, the easiest way to get good search rankings is to get people visiting your site. The easiest way to get people visiting your site is to get people around the 'net talking about it, blogging about it (especially with links back to your site), and generally doing your work for you.

Of course, it's a lot more complex than that. There's a lot to do with location and other geographic features, niche markets, etc. But, that should give you a basic idea. Yes, some companies do excel at providing SEO services, but I'd run the hell away from anyone offering "black hat" methods.

 

[highland145]

Thanks Guys. Hell of a lot easier/quicker/better/etc to ask the forum than google it....wait.....isn't that what I'm looking.....nvm


Seriously, Thanks.

Robert

 

[Texashiker]

Enough to know they haven't been outlawed.

Then you should know a company can not sell a product they do not have.

Nobody can "promise" first page results.

 

[DominionSeraph]

Then you should know a company can not sell a product they do not have.

LOL, you're taking the OP literally?

What an idiot.

 

[Texashiker]

LOL, you're taking the OP literally?

Well yea I am taking the OP literally.

There are companies out there that "promise" clients they will be on the first page of google.

Just like in the example I posted from Washington. SEO company promised something, they could not deliver, so they were sued by the state attorney general.

Making promises is a big problem in the SEO world. Who knows how many clients are ripped off when the SEO company can not hold up to their promises.

~EDIT~

If you want to compare sites that you have done SEO work on, I am willing to oblige you.

 

[Kntx]

Then you should know a company can not sell a product they do not have.

Nobody can "promise" first page results.

I think they can. But you have to know specifics. I agree, it would be impossible to promise first page results for a search string like "computers". But a competent SEO company could promise first page results for something like "computer store buffalo ny".

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

Depends on your competition and what keywords you're targeting. If it's a long tail keyword it's going to be a lot easier to rank for.

White hat seo usually takes a while before you see results. You want to get a high serp because most people won't click past the first page. This the general click distribution for the first 10 links on a query.

Google changes their algorithm around a lot so seo strategies are constantly changing. A good place would probably start by making sure your on page seo is OK and then look at what your competition is doing.

 

[Lifted]

You're worried about your wifes company spending $160/month for a service, which according to you, is being performed to their satisfaction?

Are you going to tell her the company is paying too much for bottled water too?

"Why are they paying $1,000/month for Poland Spring when tap water is free?"

 

[highland145]

Thanks for the help and suggestions. We have about 30K in the city and she does pregnancy counseling so it's a pretty small market. With a descent page setup she should be fine.

You're worried about your wifes company spending $160/month for a service, which according to you, is being performed to their satisfaction?

Are you going to tell her the company is paying too much for bottled water too?

"Why are they paying $1,000/month for Poland Spring when tap water is free?"

I'm worried they're getting screwed and don't have a clue. You'd be pissed to find out that the air I've been selling you is actually free. They're a non profit and $$ is always an issue.